Release Prayer Shield - May/June 2017

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prayershield MAY / JUNE 2017 Pastor Bakhytzhan Kashkumbaev led many to Christ in a Kazakh prison.

May 2017 Heavenly Father, You made me to worship you, to walk in step with you.

Thank you, Lord, that, as I submit to you, you guide my path and fulfil your purposes in me.

I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering today, those who are in danger of giving in to fear or anger and bitterness.

Help them to guard their hearts so that they will not be diverted from the path you have set before them.

Strengthen them, Lord.

Amen.

Central Asia Monday 1: In Central Asia, Christians can be arrested for reading the Bible in a public place such as on a bus. Even praying together can be deemed ‘illegal’. Pray that God will encourage His people in the region.

Tuesday 2: Pastor

Bakhytzhan Kashkumbaev (pictured) was convicted of crimes including ‘inciting religious hatred’ and was sent to jail in Kazakhstan. Over nine months, he led almost 100 of his fellow inmates to Christ.

Wednesday 3: Yklas Kabduakasov was sentenced to two years in a Kazakh labour camp in 2015 for proselytising. The Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal in November. Pray that Yklas will know God’s presence every day.

Thursday 4: In 2011,

Kazakhstan adopted laws that required religious groups to re-register with the government, and faith groups’ activities were closely monitored. Pray that Kazakhs will know freedom in Christ.

prayershield Friday 5: Three Kazakh Baptist pensioners were recently fined more than two months’ pension for praying with hospice residents and offering New Testaments in East Kazakhstan Region.

Saturday 6: New regulations in Tajikistan forbid parents to take children under the age of 18 to church. Pray that God will speak to Tajik youth in other ways.

Sunday 7: Pray for ‘Dilnara’

in Tajikistan: she suffered huge discrimination when she left Islam to become a Christian.

Her husband left her too. She now ministers to women and new Christians.

A Christian worker takes huge risks to distribute Christian literature in Central Asia.

Egypt Thursday 11: Islamic State

published a video in February calling on its followers to kill Christians in Egypt. Pray that God’s people in Egypt will know His perfect peace and Monday 8: In Turkmenistan, unfailing love. most Christians cannot Friday 12: Ask God to gather, even in small groups comfort and provide for about of three, unless they belong 200 Christian families forced to the same family. Pray to flee their homes in al-Arish, that Turkmen Christians will North Sinai, after extremists find creative ways to enjoy killed at least seven Christians there. Some had also had to fellowship. flee in 2011.

Tuesday 9: Thank God Saturday 13: Pray that for deaf and mute Turkmen Christians in Egypt suffering evangelist ‘Sergei’, whom Release supports. His ministry persecution will resist bitterness. A Release contact has led to more than 40 working with families from people being baptised. His al-Arish (above) said many are daughter translates his sign wrestling with doubts and fears. language for him.

Sunday 14: Pray that Wednesday 10: Ask God God will make a way for to protect our partner ‘Pavel’ Release to expand its Strength and his co-workers: with to Stand (S2S) groups in Release support, they minister Cairo, a ministry supporting to Christians across Central marginalised Christian women.

Asia who are sharing the good Pray that more local churches news and discipling new will help set up and sustain believers. new groups.

Monday 15: Lift up in prayer all those who are working hard to support persecuted Christians in Egypt. Pray especially for the facilitators in Release’s S2S groups who serve their communities with such great enthusiasm, despite suffering persecution themselves.

Tuesday 16: Christian

women – even those who are married – are being groomed or kidnapped by Muslim men, then forced to marry them and convert to Islam. Release contacts say women are being targeted systematically to try to weaken the church.

Wednesday 17: Having a daughter who converts to Islam and marries a Muslim – even against her will – brings great shame on a Christian family. Pray that affected families will find freedom from shame and new life in Christ.

Thursday 18: Pray for

God’s protection over a poor Christian family who have been rehoused by a Release partner, to protect their daughters from an attempt

prayershield to convert them to Islam.

The girls’ aunts appear to be behind the plot.

Sudan

and wonders that remind them that God is in control.

Wednesday 24: President Omar al-Bashir and his Government are relentlessly will provide for the many Christians leaving Upper Egypt pursuing an agenda of introducing a stricter form and Minya to escape hostility and the threat of attacks. Many of Sharia (Islamic law) into Sudan – and eradicating are relocating to Cairo slums Christianity. Pray that God’s where it is hard to find work. people in Sudan will have unshakeable faith.

Monday 29: North Korean

Thursday 25: Thank God

the family of Pastor Han Chung-Ryeol (pictured) from Changbai, China, near the North Korean border. He was killed last year, apparently

by North Korean officials, for supporting North Koreans who went to his church for help.

Friday 19: Pray that God

Malaysia Saturday 20: Pastor

for the release of Czech Christian aid worker Petr Raymond Koh was abducted Jašek, freed from jail in Sudan in Petaling Jaya in February. after international diplomacy His family fear he may have been murdered, though a man helped secure a presidential pardon for him. He had been was arrested after making a ransom demand. Raymond has given a life sentence for previously been threatened by charges including ‘spying’. jihadists.

Friday 26: The two Sunday 21: Pray for the

family of a pastor and his wife abducted in January. Pray they will be returned to their family soon and ask God to keep them all in His peace.

Monday 22: Christians in

Malaysia are increasingly concerned about threats to religious freedom as Parliament debates a Bill proposing that parts of a strict Islamic penal code (hudud) are incorporated into the legal system.

Tuesday 23: Pray for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak who appears to be trying to win favour among hardline Muslims ahead of next year’s elections. He is in favour of introducing hudud into the penal system (see above).

Sudanese men jailed for ‘aiding and abetting’ Petr (above) – Pastor Hassan Abduraheem and Abdulmonem Abdumawla – remain in jail. Pray their appeal will be heard soon and they too will be released.

security agents regularly cross the border into China in search of defectors, with the tacit support of Chinese officials. Pray that God will protect those who flee, and lead them to people who will tell them about Christ.

Tuesday 30: Pray for

Wednesday 31: At least four people Pastor Han led to Christ have since been executed by the North Korean Government. Ask God to protect brave North Korean Christians who return to their homeland to spread the gospel.

Saturday 27: At least 25

church buildings in Khartoum North are currently under threat of demolition. The Government says they were built on land ‘intended for other uses’: mosques in the area are not affected.

North Korea Sunday 28: Pray that God

will revive the hope of His people inside North Korea.

Pray that they will see signs

Pastor Han was killed in China for his ministry to North Koreans.

prayershield

Iran Wednesday 7: Pray for

Alimjan Yimit’s family have been able to visit him only infrequently since he was jailed nine years ago.

JUNE 2017

to operate, apparently due to her human rights work.

China

Sunday 4: Continue

Thursday 1: Alimjan Yimit is serving a 15year jail sentence for evangelising China’s Uyghur Muslim population. He was sentenced in 2008.

His wife (pictured with relatives) is able to visit only occasionally, for 15 minutes at a time.

Friday 2: Zhang Xiuhong

is starting a five-year jail sentence. Zhang, a former deacon of the much persecuted Huoshi Church in Guizhou, was convicted of ‘illegal business operations’.

Saturday 3: Praise God

that Huang Yan was able to receive vital surgery for ovarian cancer, thanks to support from her fellow Christians worldwide.

Chinese medics had refused

to pray for the release of Christian lawyer Li Heping, detained since 2015 for his work defending house church leaders and environmental activists. He is said to have been tortured.

Monday 5: Li Heping’s

brother, lawyer Li Chunfu, spent more than 500 days in jail and suffered brutal torture. He showed signs of mental illness on release from jail. Continue to pray God will heal him totally.

Tuesday 6: Pray that

China will give in to international pressure and release the scores of lawyers, church leaders and justice campaigners who have been rounded up by the authorities in a clampdown since 2015.

Many of those detained are Christians.

the release of Amin Nader Afshar and Hadi Askary who have been detained without charge since August. The men went on hunger strike until officials promised them medical care and progress in their case.

Thursday 8: Yaser Mosibzadeh, Saheb Fadayee and Mohammad Reza Omidi were sentenced to 80 lashes for taking communion wine.

Pray they will win their appeal.

Friday 9: Yaser, Saheb and Mohammad (above) have also been charged with acting against national security. Pray these charges will be dropped.

Saturday 10: Pray for Veronika and her son, Augustine, who were arrested in February in Urmia, just months after being baptised in Turkey.

Revolutionary Guards raided their home and found Christian literature.

Turkey Sunday 11: Pray for the

release of Pastor Andrew Brunson (pictured overleaf) who has been imprisoned in western Turkey since October after false accusation were made that he has links to ‘terrorists’.

Monday 12: Christians in Turkey fear religious liberties are under threat as

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Pastor Andrew Brunson has served the Turkish people for 23 years – but is now behind bars.

the Government continues its crackdown on those suspected of links to the Gulen movement which it blames for last year’s attempted coup.

Tuesday 13: In the past

four years, at least 100 pastors serving in Turkey have reportedly been denied visas or permits, and forced to leave. Several have been accused of ‘threatening national security’. Ask God to protect church leaders.

Wednesday 14: Pray that

Christians in Turkey will stand firm in their faith and not be discouraged by the recent crackdown.

Pakistan Thursday 15: Praise God

that evangelist Babu Shahbaz was released from police custody after accusations

of ‘blasphemy’ proved unfounded. Continued threats to his family mean they have not been able to return to their home in Kamahan near Lahore.

Friday 16: Pastor Judoon was apparently abducted from Kamahan in January because of his involvement in Babu Shahbaz’s case (above). Pray for news of what has happened to him.

Saturday 17: Mukhtar Masih, a 70-year-old Christian from Gujranwala, Punjab, has been accused of ‘blasphemy’ for allegedly making derogatory remarks about the Koran and Islam’s prophet, Mohammed, in a letter. Ask God to protect him and his family.

Sunday 18: An AntiTerrorism Court in Lahore recently cleared 106 Muslims of attacking Joseph Colony, a Christian community in Lahore, during a blasphemy row in 2013. Christians fear Pakistan’s courts are biased against them. Pray that officials will take firm action against such riots in future.

Monday 19: The Joseph Colony riots (above) followed accusations of blasphemy being made against a Christian road-sweeper named Sawan Masih. He was sentenced to death in 2014: his appeal has yet to be heard.

Tuesday 20: Pray for 32 Christians accused of killing two men suspected of suicide bomb attacks on two

churches in Youhannabad, Lahore, in March 2015.

Their prosecution is being contested by Christian lawyers.

Wednesday 21: Pakistan’s Supreme Court has just granted bail to evangelist Adnan Prince, more than two years after he was detained over accusations he had written blasphemous comments in a book about Islam.

Thursday 22: Pray that almighty God will be the advocate for the many Christians in Pakistan unjustly accused and prosecuted because of their faith: pray He will help secure justice for them.

Friday 23: Continue to pray for the repeal of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

Pray for a radical shift in attitudes towards religious minorities in Pakistan, where intolerance appears to be growing.

Saturday 24: Pray for the release of Christian Imran Ghafur who is serving a life sentence because a neighbour claimed to see him burning pages of a copy of the Koran.

Sunday 25: Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who has been convicted of blasphemy, is still waiting for Lahore’s Supreme Court to hear her appeal against a death sentence. A hearing last October was postponed at the last minute after a judge stepped down.

Thursday 29: About

5,000 people flee Eritrea every month, many of them Christians. Ask God to protect them. Most of the 3,000 emigrants who died last year in the Mediterranean, trying to cross into Europe, were Eritrean.

Friday 30: The UN is calling for Eritrean leaders to be prosecuted over allegations of widespread human rights abuses since 1991. Pray that Eritrea will respond to international pressure and restore religious freedoms.

The father of these Eritrean girls was imprisoned because of his Christian witness.

Eritrea Monday 26: Eritrea has

jailed thousands of prisoners of conscience, including many Christians, over the years. Some have been held for more than two decades without charge. Thank God that the current number of Christian prisoners in Eritrea, estimated at 178, is relatively low. Pray that God will strengthen His people behind bars and use them to draw many other prisoners and guards to Christ.

Lord Jesus, Tuesday 27: Pray for

the families of Christian prisoners, including the young girls pictured. Many have not been allowed to visit their loved ones.

The family of Dr Kiflu Gebremeskel have not seen him since 2004.

Wednesday 28: Haile Nayzgi was among several church leaders arrested in Eritrea in 2004. His family fled the country. Pray that Haile and his family – and other families who are separated – will be reunited.

Sources: AFK Insider; China Aid; Christian Today; Forum 18; Middle East Concern; Morning Star News; Release partners and contacts; Reuters; The Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey; VOM USA; World Watch Monitor.

You invite me to cast all my burdens on to you. Precious Lord, thank you that I can bring my anxiety and fear to the foot of the cross – and leave it there.

Jesus, speak to my persecuted brothers and sisters today: reassure them of your love, teach them to trust you and help them to give themselves completely to you (James 4:7). Help me to do the same, Lord.

Amen. © Release International 2017 Names in inverted commas have been changed to protect identities.

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